Empire

Empire! is a space combat and trading video game designed by Andrew Glaister and published by Firebird Software in 1986 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC.

An empire is a group of territories controlled by a monarch or a supreme central authority. Within an empire, different populations may have different sets of rights and may be governed differently. The word "empire" derives from the Roman concept of , which refers to the right to command. Empires have taken many forms throughout history.

Definition

An empire is an aggregate of many territories under a supreme ruler or oligarchy. Definitions of what physically and politically constitutes an empire vary. It might be a state affecting imperial policies or a particular political structure. Empires are typically formed from diverse ethnic, national, cultural, and religious components. 'Empire' and 'Colonialism' are used to refer to relationships between a powerful state or society versus a less powerful one; Michael W. Doyle has defined empire as "effective control, whether formal or informal, of a subordinated society by an imperial society". Imperialism for Doyle is simply the process of establishing and maintaining an empire. Similarly, for Rein Taagepera imperialism is a policy of conquest and domination of foreign lands and populations. Scholars typically distinguish empires from nation-states. In an empire, there is a hierarchy whereby one group of people has command over other groups of people, and there is a hierarchy of rights and prestige for different groups of people. Josep Colomer distinguished between empires and states in the following way: Empires were vastly larger than states Empires lacked fixed or permanent boundaries whereas a state had fixed boundaries Empires had a "compound of diverse groups and territorial units with asymmetric links with the center" whereas a state had "supreme authority over a territory and population" Empires had multi-level, overlapping jurisdictions whereas a state sought monopoly and homogenization

Characteristics

Empires are usually the result of military conquest, incorporating the vanquished states into their domain. Empires can expand by both land and sea. Territorial empires (e.g. the Macedonian Empire and Byzantine Empire) tend to be contiguous areas extending directly outwards from the original frontier. The terrestrial empire's maritime analogue is the thalassocracy, an empire composed of islands and coasts which are accessible to its terrestrial homeland, such as the Athenian-dominated Delian League and the British Empire) with looser structures and more scattered territories, often consisting of many islands and other forms of possessions which required the creation and maintenance of a powerful navy.

Historical empires

Athenian

Macedonia

Throughout his military career, Alexander won every battle that he personally commanded. His first victory against the Persians in Asia Minor at the Battle of the Granicus in 334 BC used a small cavalry contingent as a distraction to allow his infantry to cross the river followed by a cavalry charge from his companion cavalry. Alexander led the cavalry charge at the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, forcing the Persian king Darius III and his army to flee. Darius III, despite having superior numbers, was again forced to flee the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. The Persian king was later captured and executed by his own satrap of Bactria and kinsman, Bessus, in 330 BC. The Macedonian king subsequently hunted down and executed Bessus in what is now Afghanistan, securing the region of Sogdia in the process. At the 326 BC Battle of the Hydaspes (modern-day Punjab), when the war elephants of King Porus of the Pauravas threatened Alexander's troops, he had them form open ranks to surround the elephants and dislodge their handlers by using their sarissa pikes. When his Macedonian troops threatened mutiny in 324 BC at Opis, Babylonia (near modern Baghdad, Iraq), Alexander offered Macedonian military titles and greater responsibilities to Persian officers and units instead, forcing his troops to seek forgiveness at a staged banquet of reconciliation between Persians and Macedonians. After Alexander's victory over the Achaemenid Empire, he died and his empire was split up amongst his generals.

Roman

Ancient Sparta

Achaemenid

Mongol

British

Russian

Growth and collapse

Growth

Throughout human history there has been a trend of empires with increasing sizes. Empire building was historically used as a method of scaling up cooperation between societies beyond the level of city states and small territorial states. Cipolla credits the ability for an empire to grow to it's increasing incomes and consumption, both public and private.

Collapse

According to Peter Turchin, shrinking earnings and worsening living conditions breed resentment amongst citizens which leads to strife domestically. This leads more wealthier groups to turn to the government for wealth which tends to expand its spending while tax income drops because of growing hardship. When public funds fail the state can no longer control its soldiers or police. This causes elite rivalries to expand into civil war and mass uprisings.

See also

Colonial empire Emperor at home, king abroad Linguistic imperialism Nomadic empire List of empires List of largest empires

Notes

References

Citations

Further reading

, review of ; ; Doniger, Wendy, "The Rise and Fall of Warhorses" (review of David Chaffetz, Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires, Norton, 2024, 424 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXXII, no. 6 (10 April 2025), pp. 17–19. "Unlike cows, horses, whose teeth are quite dull, pull up grass by the roots rather than biting off the blades, or they nibble it right down to the ground, thus quickly destroying the land, which may require some years to recover.... [H]orses in the wild... range constantly to find new territory... [T]he horse came to symbolize conquest through its own natural imperialism. The steppes bred nomadic horses and nomadic hordes.... Men waged war to get other people's horses so that they could wage war. Horsepower... remained the basic unit of power for centuries.... But the horse-breeding people of the steppes never succeeded in conquering the part of the world west of the Carpathians and the Alps, nor civilizations.... where sea power... was decisive." (p. 17.) Written for the United Nations Research Institute on Development, UNRISD, Geneva. , Rev. by Mary Q. Innis; foreword by Marshall McLuhan. , examines the Roman, Ottoman, Habsburg, Russian, British and French empires.

External links

Index of Colonies and Possessions

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